BAD SUNEOKUN, BAD, BAD, BAD
I've been talking up on how APOC gives you the opportunity to run super-hard combo's and combination of Formations and Superheavies can lead to some particularly nasty results. Now it should be noted that nothing in the following could be ruled under fluffy ... although actually it would be pretty easy to draw up a Geu'la Tau/Guard force built around the following.
In Sunday APOC game (started at 11am, finished 4.30pm) we had 8000pts a side. The armies facing eachother were:
Necron AND Blood Angels AND Space Marines AND Black Templars
versus
Tyranids AND Tau/Guard AND Vraks Guard+Deathguard
Putting my proverbial money where my mouth is ... I ran with the following:
'Imperial Shield Infantry Company' - 150
- This gifts 'defence lines' - 36" on 3+ aegis line cover where I want in my deployment.
- Scheduled Bombardement - 3 turn base Apoc barrages (4) at S8 AP3 (ie anti smurf)
- On my coordinates - any vox-caster in the formation can 'opt' to drop a apoc barrage (4) on his head on a passed leadership test.
This required me to field 3 platoons with lots of vox's, lascannons and autocannons, a plasma'd up command squad and a powerfist commissar lord and 15 mortars ... not a hardship.
Total 1280
And here's the real dirt:
Doomhammer (450)
4 Squad of Broadside Battlesuits (all with targetting arrays) (640)
4 team leader and target lock upgrade (40)
Techpriest and 3 Servitors (90)
Total 1220
JUSTIFICATION OF THE FACT THAT I AM NOT ACTUALLY EVIL
The Imperial Shield was helpful but not overpowered ... and was actually VERY VERY funny. I attempted two suicide runs... one failed and the squad was wiped out in the open. Their barrage would have slaughtered blood angels AND tomb spiders. The other barrage succeeded in killing 4 Space Marine bikers ... a particularly tasty result.
One advantage of this tool is that unlike normal fire ... you can use this unit to drop a 'finisher' into the middle of a close combat medley. The rules require the death of the squad (most of the time) and more likely the death of everyone in the area (friend or foe) ... everyone agreed afterwards that this was a good fun option and very fluffy.
TAKING THE DIRT ... ONCE
I'm never going to take the Doomhammer/Broadside combo again. It's very, very dirty. Effectively I had a eight broadside INSIDE the doomhammer (yeah I know, and ten terminators in that little landraider too!?!), which is 16 of the 25 spaces. Plus a techpriest and 3 servitors (taking up 4 slots and giving me a 2+ repair on any weapon destroyed or immobilised results) and the plasma'd command squad.
So this monster could chew out two lascannon shots at 4+ to hit. A doomhammer shot (VERY USEFUL) S10 AP1 5" big blast template ... plus 8 individually targetting broadside shots at BS4 (that's an 88% to hit rate with the reroll) ... so thats 9 S10 AP1 weapons firing at 'whatever' ... filth.
NB: It didn't kill the opposing Baneblade. It did however have complete tactical control of the middle field, a 4+ cover save (sitting behind two leman russ) and just dominated.
It's the closest I've come to an instant-win in APOC. The firepower it could bring was frankly silly. The Baneblade took one shot at the Doomhammer. The DoomSiders then stripped it of every firing weapon bar one lascannon in turn one (I'm rubbish at rolling 5's and 6's against tanks) and then proceeded to keep the Baneblade 'muffled' with turn after turn of S10 nastiness.
The Baneblade ended the game immobilised, with every weapon destroyed and 2 structure points...
However ... by this point the 'DoomSide' had turned its attention to 'sniping' ... yeah, I used S10 AP1 weapons to kill:
- The Deciever
- Toom Spiders
- Sanguinar
- Lots of Terminators and lots of Artificer Armoured dudes...
88% to hit and 2+ to wound ... is just horrible. By the end of the game we'd amassed a horrific tally. The Necrons were entirely culled. The Black Templars were gone (bar one immobilised Dreadnought with flamers) and the remaining two Space Marine armies were down to their last few terminators ...
Although everything I did was within the rules ... I so felt like I'd tapped in a 'cheat-code' before the game. The DoomSide is just too hard and massacre'd everyone.
OTHER GREAT OPTIONS
I took a plasma'd up Executioner for the first time ... and it was great! I usually avoid the executioner as it lacks antitank... but as a bullet shield to the DoomSide it was a perfect partner ... offering lots of AP2 blast to hurt the legion of terminators that deepstriked a long way away!
The Mortars were well worth the points as well ... killing 5 legion of the damned and 4 terminators in two separate turns. The Mortar excels in APOC, where it covers perfectly the 'I need lots of wounds to force them to roll the ones' option. 300 pts (15 bases) offers you lots and lots of turn after turn firepower...
Devildogs... I know that everyone bitched about the devildog being the poor option to the Banewolf and Hellhound ... but I think it rocks! The Devildogs AP1 blast gives you terminator AND antitank options... as a late reserver IT WILL FIND targets in you deployment zone and its too good to ignore ... but they have to hit it on a 6! The problem is that the banewolf is great ... but needs to be really close, whereas if you are reserving hellhounds ... you're not thinking it through ... AP4 ain't gonna be on the board by turn three.
Tactics aside ...
My Team mates did a brilliant job of holding up the close combat specialists... with the Nids taking the crown for holding up one flank with gargantuan creatures and Trygons and the other side with dirty Doom of Malantai against Necrons (who really regretted only being S6) ...
The Blood Angels got weirdly obsessed about killing the Tyranid beasties and therefore deep struck a LONG way away from me ... giving me two to three turns of lots of shooting to kill the buggers. To top it off, Lysander seemed to get lost and arrived in totally the wrong place. Weird?
The only player which threatened me was the Necrons. The Deciever and Pariahs got very very close to jumping my tanks ... while the deepstriking flayed ones almost took my DoomHammer - twice! If Lysander had got ballsy and deepstriked in my back yard ... That squad of thunderhammers would have tore my Doomhammer a new one ... and then the Broadside would have had a short look at shooting before being pounded.
Unfortunately for my opponent ... dropping a unit that BIG, and THAT PRICEY, that NEAR a huge tank wasn't what they wanted ... and they bottled it. If they'd been true to their deepstrike formed ... the game may have been different.
Additionally. The DoomSider has one big 'gulp' ... roll a 6 (or 5 or 6 if hit by the destroyer weapon) and every single Broadside in there dies (S9 AP2 hits) ... that over 1250pts of instant-death or instantwin.
